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Thursday, May 14, 2015

May 1948-1972 A.D. Athenagoras I—Constantinople’s 267th; Metropolitan of Corfu; Established Diocese in North America

May 1948-1972 A.D.Athenagoras I—Constantinople’s 267th; Metropolitan of
Corfu; Established Diocese in North America; Royalists v. Republicans; Widely
Loved; Establish Holy Trinity in New York City, Upper East Side, on 22 Oct
1933;Worked with World Council of
Churches;Crafted Recision of
Excommunications on Old Rome Back to 1054; Rapproachment with Paul VI; Read at Vatican II

Upon graduating, he wastonsuredamonk, given the name Athenagoras, and ordained to thediaconate. He served asarchdeaconof the Diocese of Pelagonia before becoming the
secretary toArchbishopMeletius (Metaxakis)of Athens in 1919. While still a deacon, he was
elected the Metropolitan of Corfu in 1922 and straightway raised to the
episcopacy.

Returning from a fact-finding
trip to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America in 1930,MetropolitanDamaskinos
recommended toPatriarch Photios IIthat he appoint Metropolitan Athenagoras to the
position of Archbishop ofNorthand South America as the best person to bring
harmony to the American diocese. The patriarch made the appointment on August
30, 1930.

When Archbishop Athenagoras
assumed his new position on February 24, 1931, he was faced with the task of
bringing unity and harmony to a diocese that was racked with dissension between
Royalists and Republicans (Venizelists), who had virtually divided the country into
separate dioceses. To correct that, he centralized the ecclesiastical administration
in the Archdiocese offices with all other bishops serving as auxiliaries,
appointed to assist the archbishop, without dioceses and administrative rights
of their own. He actively worked with his communities to establish harmony. He
expanded the work of the clergy-laity congresses and founded theHoly Cross School of Theology. Through his capable and fatherly leadership he
withstood early opposition and gained the love and devotion of his people.

In 1938, Athenagoras was
naturalized as a United States citizen.[4][5]

On November 1, 1948, he was
elected Patriarch of Constantinople at the age of 61.[5]In January 1949, he was honored to be flown in the
personal airplane of the American presidentHarry Trumanto Istanbul, Turkey to assume his new position.[6]As Patriarch, he was actively involved with theWorld Council of Churchesand improving relations with the Roman Catholic
Pontiff, the Pope of Rome.

The controversial declaration
did not end the 1054 schism, but rather showed a desire for greater
reconciliation between the two churches, as represented byPope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I. Not all
Orthodox leaders, however, received the declaration with joy.Metropolitan Philaretof theRussian Orthodox Church Abroad openly challenged the Patriarch's efforts at
rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church fearing it would lead toheresy, in his 1965 epistle to the Patriarch.[9]

References

Citations

2.^Jump up to:abcdBlock, Rothe & Candee 1950,
"Athenagoras I, Patriarch", pp. 14–15: "Born March 25, 1886, in
Vassilikon, near Janina in the Greek province of Epirus (at that time a part of
the Ottoman Empire), the Patriarch, who is of Hellenic stock is the son of
Matthew N. Spyrou, a physician, and Helen V. (Mokoros) Spyrou. His baptismal
name was Aristocles Matthew Spyrou. Strongly encouraged by his mother and by "the
humble priest" of his village (the quoted words are the Patriarch's own),
the boy early resolved to devote his life to religion; and in 1906, after
completing his secondary education at the Greek school on the island of Halki,
near Istanbul, he entered the Holy Trinity Theological School on Halki. The
thesis he submitted he submitted for ordination dealt with the election of the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from the beginning up to the year 1453.
On being ordained deacon in 1910..."

7.Jump up^Newsweek 1972, p. 172:
"Died: ATHENAGORASI, 86,
Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, spiritual leader of 125
million Eastern Christians, of kidney failure while hospitalized for a broken
hip, in Istanbul, July 6. The Greek-born, white-bearded, 6-foot 4-inch prelate
became Ecumenical Patriarch in 1948 after seventeen years in New York as Greek
Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America."